Among the show’s more than 2,000 exhibitors, you will find technologies ranging from bioplastics, polylactic acid (PLA) films and other sustainable packaging materials to energy-efficient machinery and lean production systems that will address key issues on source reduction, minimization of greenhouse gas emissions and waste, and rising levels of recycling and recycled content.

To help you easily identify exhibitors highlighting sustainable solutions, PMMI is introducing PACK EXPO Green. Special icons will flag listings in the compact Pocket Guide Directory available on site at PACK EXPO and in participating exhibitors’ booths.

The sustainability theme will also carry over to the Conference. A sustainability track will be featured as part of each day’s program schedule, allowing you to explore various dimensions of sustainability including conservation, “lightweighting,” and plant operations.

Each of the conference’s keynote sessions will also address sustainability – beginning with a special address by Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, Packaging Director of Sam’s Club and Co-Manager of the Wal-Mart Sustainability Value Network:

In a standalone session, “Keeping Score: How Wal-Mart and its Suppliers Continue to Advance Packaging Change, Innovation and Sustainability,” Zettlemoyer-Lazar will deliver a progress report of the Wal-Mart sustainability program and the next steps in its evolution. Additionally, Wal-Mart will staff a Wal-Mart Sustainability Scorecard Information Center during the run of the show.

Betsy Cohen, vice president of sustainability at Nestlé, will present “More Safety vs. Less Material? Where Does Packaging Go?,” addressing the challenges, conflicts and competing values packaging professionals must balance every day.

Trevor Cusworth, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP, will deliver Tuesday’s keynote speech. His presentation on “Sustainability in Manufacturing: From Boardroom to Break Room” will use real-life case studies to highlight and demonstrate sustainable operations practices and identify immediate actions that can improve the sustainability of manufacturing operations as well as longer-term actions such as designing and installing new lines and equipment.

Glenn A. Wright, commercial vice president, North American Basic Plastics at The Dow Chemical Company, will lead the conference’s final keynote session. Wright’s speech, “Packaging is Part of the Solution, Not the Problem,” will explore the positive environmental, social and economic impacts of packaging and highlight real benefits that often go unnoticed. Consumer and industry data featured in this session will prove how packaging contributes to sustainability and that, when accompanied by education and industry collaboration, will not only benefit the environment, but strengthen brand promise as well.

Attendees can register for keynote sessions along with other conference sessions at www.packexpo.com.

Other products at the show will include the company’s DryLin lubrication-free, low wear slide
tables and linear guides, which can last in applications where ball bearing systems fail due to ingress of dirt. They will also include igus’ self-lubricating plain and self-aligning bearings and cable management systems to guide and protect moving cables on automated machinery.

Pallet-Grip allows automatic stretch wrappers to wrap below the deck of the shipping pallet — locking the load to the pallet — while still wrapping to the machine’s full 80-in. height. The Load-Seeking Film Clamp ensures maximum stretch-wrap containment force when used on conveyor style wrapping systems.

Pallet-Grip rolls several inches of the film web into a cable and places it at a specified height below the pallet deck, while the remainder of the film web captures the load above the deck to create effective containment. Precise placement of the film cable ensures truck forks won’t tear it.  It captures any style of pallet from four to six inches high.